Filed under: Big Ten
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen will step down from his post in July of 2009, many media outlets like SI.com are reporting. I kind of doubt this site had anything to do with him stepping down. The question that relates to this blog is what that will mean for the BCS/Playoff talks, and how they might intensify. Hansen and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney are obviously the 1-2 punch that continues to shut down any talk of a playoff format. If you know the history, the Rose Bowl is obviously a big sticking point since it has all the “history” between the Pac-10 and Big Ten, and it’s a huge pot of gold for the two conferences. Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com recently wrote a great piece about how much the Big Ten has benefitted from the BCS.
The answers will come out soon as we figure out more about the new commissioner, but right now, Jim Delany might be a little disappointed that he is losing another piece of his chess game.
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
It will be interesting to see whether there will actually be any effect here. The new Pac-10 commissioner is presumably going to be installed by the conference’s respective school presidents, who are probably all of the old guard types that don’t want to mess with the Rose Bowl. Where the Pac-10 and Big Ten may differ is that the Big Ten has stronger bowl ties down the line (Capital One Bowl, Outback Bowl, etc.) along with a higher propensity to get multiple BCS berths since the conference’s fan bases generally travel very well. As a result, the Big Ten has more financial ties to the overall bowl system (although the same could be said for the SEC), so the Pac-10 would probably move before the Big Ten on this issue.
Comment by Frank the Tank June 17, 2008 @ 9:14 am